autowriters.comseptember 2009newsletter

A chance glance at a pithy thought printed on a T-shirt took Huffington Post blogger
Schuyler Brown through a door to the
future and “The Golden Age of PR.” The phrase: “Nothing Is
More Abstract Than Reality,” brought Brown a vision of
“what’s changing as we enter the wild west of information
dissemination is that the concept of journalistic integrity
has nearly disappeared and concepts like ’the truth’ and
‘reality’ have become so abstract as to be meaningless.”

Photo By: Cheryl Leinonen

Reduced ad budgets (down $1.7 billon in auto advertising
alone during the first half of the year) has freed funding
for actual and virtual consumer interactions, clever spins
and artful image-building event marketing to move product
and ease our existential discontent with “old realities.”
Diana Verde Nieto, writing for Media Post Publications,
says, the new reality involves, “taking the message of a
brand and using it to produce entertainment that consumers
are interested in and want to engage with. By producing
these new entertainment experiences brands gain significant
publicity.”

Current examples, Buick’s "Art of Taste” events
in several cities in conjunction with Uptown Magazine that
combine music, culinary arts and entertainment to showcase
the 2010 LaCrosse for the magazine’s affluent
African-American audience, Scion’s sending an art collection
on tour and then auctioning if off for charity, Audi’s
“Youth Mobile 2030 Los Angeles Design Challenge", Ford’s “You
Speak Green” Facebook promotion and B.F. Goodrich’s
“Nation of Go” traveling road show and multi-platform
interactive tie-ins.

Frank Rich offers a more somber vision of the road ahead in
The New York Times (Is Obama Punking Us?) when he writes,
“What disturbs Americans of all ideological persuasions is
the fear that almost everything, not just government, is
fixed or manipulated by some powerful hidden hand, from
commercial transactions as trivial as the sale of prime
concert tickets to cultural forces as pervasive as the news
media.” As an example of the latter, Rich offered his
paper’s report that the corporate bosses of MSNBC and
Fox
News sanctioned an agreement to tone down the on-air war
between their respective cable stars. Rich said the report,
“fed legitimate suspicions on the left and the right that
even their loudest public voices can be silenced if the
business interests of the real American elite decree it.”

A questionable prospect for auto journalists: knowingly or
not, feeding fantasy as reality to abet the financial
interests of their employer. Tom Kelley provides one answer
in this month’s Tom-Tom: become truly expert in one or two
areas. This viewpoint
is supported by a recent comment by Alan Press, senior
marketing vice president for the very successful
publication, The Economist, “There is a myth that people are
looking for sound-bites and celebrity...The reality is
that there is a growing demand among the educated for
intelligent news, analysis and entertainment that
challenges, amuses and informs." (Quoted in Wooden Horse
News, Sept. 1)

Eric Killorin has published the first issue of the
Car Pub
Insider blog which he says, “gathers, researches, analyzes,
and comments on the unprecedented challenges facing our
industry” . . . Race Fan Radio has introduced
Next Level, a
new 60-minute interactive show devoted to young,
up-and-coming racers.
To learn more, check www.raceFanRadio.com. To book someone
for the show call 877-596-7223 or email
nextlevel@racefanradio.com.

New to AWCOM is the more than 50 hybrid
related blogs and websites,
http://www.hybridkingdom.com.
According to JeffCarey, monarch of this kingdom, “Rather
than build one website/blog to write about all aspects of
hybrid-electric vehicles, we are building specialized niche
sites for hybrid SUVs, hybrid cars, hybrid trucks, the 3rd
generation Prius, and more. The most popular of them
currently is www.HybridSUV.com. . . . Another new and
unusual blog
brought to AWCOM’s attention is
http://fabulavir.com
authored by John Walker who says it is an “Experimental
fiction concerning the life of a surviving identical twin
who inherits an Oldsmobile 442 and slowly becomes the man
his brother might have been while coming to terms with
death.” . . . Yet another
Blog new to AWCOM is The Cultural Blog Garage, “a social site
for those whose common bond is a passion for all things
combustion. It meets at the cross streets of automobiles and
culture.”

USA Today has a number of mobile editions in the
works. “Company officials forecast a huge market for mobile
readers in the near future,” according to Media Daily News.
. . . The Rocky Mountain Independent is a news Web site
serving residents of Denver and surrounding area. It is
staffed by former editors of the shuttered Rocky Mountain
News. Steve Foster, Cindy House and John Moore are
co-editors. For more information, check
www.rockymountainindependent.com.

Autowriters.Com invites readers to submit their own Clog
(Online Column). Your reward: a byline and an audience of
your peers. All submissions are acknowledged, queued
and used at the editor’s discretion.

Tom Kelley is a freelance auto journalist specializing in
trucks. He is founder of the Southeast Automotive Media
Organization and Executive Director of the Truck Writers of
North America. Reach him at:tom.kelley@deadlinefactory.com

Earlier this year, we took a look at
the "How" of Journalism
3.0,
examining the delivery mechanism and how the new structural
paradigm
compares to the old. In this installment, we'll take a look
at "What"
one should consider covering as automotive media evolves.

As a second-generation automotive journalist who's about to
round the
half-century curve, I've had the unique opportunity to
follow the
highs and lows of our craft almost since the time it became
a
recognized subset of journalism.

During what my father sometimes referred to as "the bygone
era of
byzantine opulence in automotive public relations," there
were rare
occasions when not just spouses were invited along to a
preview, but
offspring of nearly all ages were welcomed as well. While
the adults
were inside feasting on prime rib and being entertained with
live
music, my fellow rug-rats and I were outside flogging
brand-appropriate go-karts around the parking lot, getting
our fill
of soda, hot dogs and popcorn.

Although the fog of time may have impaired my memory
regarding all of the specifics, the relatively unchanged capacity of some
event venues
backs up my estimation that the mainstream automotive press
corp
numbered only in the dozens back in the auto industry's
glory days of
the 1960s. If one adds in the members of the "enthusiast"
and
motorsports press of that era, the total number might have
passed the
200 mark, but only barely so.

But then as the baby boomers came of car-buying age, the
auto
industry and its press corp grew exponentially over the next
few
decades, to the point where recent auto show statistics
quote press
registrations in the range of 3,000 to 4,000, not including
many of
the bloggers and new-media attendees.

Until recently, virtually every metro area in the U.S. with
a
population of a few hundred thousand or more was supporting
a daily
newspaper, and with it, their own dedicated autowriter
riding herd on
no less than a weekly auto section.

Unfortunately, those at the helm of many newspaper
organizations
confused their actual product with the idea that they were
primarily
in the business of printing on paper, secondarily acting as
pundits outside the narrow constraints of the op-ed pages, and on a
barely
tertiary basis, serving only a portion of their readers with
hard
news and useful information. The inevitable result of this
market
blindness is that many mid-sized daily newspapers, along
with a few
of their big-city brethren, are currently heading the way of
the
buggy-whip.

With the demise of a significant portion of the newspaper
business, a
substantial numbers of auto journalists, hundreds maybe,
find
themselves looking for a new outlet to distribute their sage
words of
automotive wisdom. When these ex- or soon to be ex-newspaper
auto
journalists were "the" car guy at their paper, they had no
choice but
to be generalists, covering all things automotive, because
nobody
else at their paper had the knowledge or connections to
cover the topic.

When the newspaper business was at its peak, there was a
market for
several hundred automotive generalists in the U.S. But now
that the
scope of an automotive media outlet is no longer limited to
the reach
of the local auto dealers, the market for generalists is
drying up,
just as many automotive generalists are out looking for a
new home.

The obvious answer, of course, is to specialize. Not within
one
specific media format, and not to the exclusion of all else
automotive, but to become truly expert in one, or just a
small number
of automotive topic areas.

The concept of specialization within the automotive
journalism
community isn't new, but it does seem to be nearly unheard
of among
the more recent generations of autowriters. There are some
specialists in the autowriting biz, but with all due
respect, most
have been around since Henry Ford was learning to drive.
Yes, it does
take time to become one of the few recognized as an expert
in a
particular automotive topic, but one never becomes expert if
one
never starts to specialize.

Before the hands go up volunteering to specialize in
reviewing luxury
cars, how many luxury cars have you purchased new? Before
you
volunteer to specialize in test-driving sports cars, can you
explain
vehicle dynamics to your grandmother more understandably
than Bob
Bondurant or Jackie Stewart can? Realistically speaking, if
your goal
is to become a sports car expert, start by writing
interviews and biographies of legends like Bondurant and Stewart, get your SCCA
competition license, build and wreck your first few race
cars, and
really learn about sports cars hands-on, before you ask to
go along
on that Lambo ride & drive.

More practically, look for topics that have broad appeal,
but are
rarely covered. There's a huge potential readership out
there for
trailer towing information, but in hundreds of ride &
drives, I've
met less than a dozen autowriters who were capable of
backing up a
trailer. Everybody who drives will experience adverse
weather on the
road sooner or later, but little is written about the pros
and cons
of various features in relation to driving in bad weather
(this one
is easier to write about in Seattle than San Diego).

If nuts and bolts are your thing, learn enough to be "the"
guy/gal
for engines, or transmissions, or even engine-cooling/HVAC
(yes, Paul
really will retire some day).

Just as the physical structure of the news organization is
changing,
who's to say that a single car review in 2019 won't be the
collective
work of the engine expert, the towing expert, the handling
expert,
the working mother expert and the resale value expert? Where
the
mid-sized newspaper never had the budget for this panel of
experts,
nor did it have local access to this range of experts, the
geographic
constraints are gone in Journalism 3.0, so an online outlet
with
national readership can draw from topic experts spread to
the four
corners of the map.

As noted in this piece
http://www.minonline.com/news/11787.html
from
min Online, "The Web 2.0 ethic of crowdsourcing all
information and
relying on the purported wisdom of the crowds has natural
limits. . .
. The users can't answer everything. The role of expertise
in a Web
2.0 world has been diminished, and people will seek out our
experts."
Similarly, users will soon tire of the auto websites that
rely mainly
on the latest fad in coding and web design to deliver
reprinted press
releases wrapped around a few obligatory lines of punditry.

The Internet has democratized publishing, everybody has an
opinion,
and many can express their opinion capably in writing, so
much of
journalism's cachet is no longer unique to journalists. What
will
separate tomorrow's journalist from everybody else is the
depth of
their expertise within a specialized topic area.

Speaking of specialization, Kelley asks, does your current
beat or area of interest include commercial use trucks?
Whether as small as a Class 1 Ford Transit Connect, or as
large as a Class 8 Kenworth T2000, if it’s used in a
business setting, it’s a commercial truck.

If your job involves communicating about trucks, on either
side of the Press/PR fence, you should know about the Truck
Writers of North America (TWNA). Founded in 1988, TWNA is an
organization of professionals who are involved in gathering,
writing and reporting news and information about trucks,
trucking and the trucking industry.

TWNA’s membership is composed of writers, editors, freelance
journalists, public relations and communications
specialists, sales and marketing personnel and others
involved in the business of producing information related to
the world of trucking.

TWNA also serves as an information source and referral
service for the non-truck trade media as it reports on the
trucking industry.

Harold Gunn is a life long car nut who is in his third term as President of the
Texas Auto Writers Association. Taught tools by his Dad, at age 14 he rebuilt
his first car, a '48 Ford convertible, from a clunker to a driver.

Through the years he's owned some pretty impressive iron including a '59 Ferrari Testa Rossa that he foolishly sold in 1969 and has regretted it ever
since. In the late sixties he began performing in radio and television
commercials. Shortly thereafter he formed a production/advertising/public
relations
company that is still operating. Gunn began regular radio and television
programming in 1972 and has not been off the air since.

For seventeen years he
has been
producer/host of the country's number one syndicated outdoors radio program that
includes a vehicle feature, Texas Outdoor News. Eight years ago he was asked
to produce an automotive television show and that prompted him to create the
syndicated radio program, The Automotive Reporter, which he has produced
and co-hosted for seven years.

His automotive background goes from drag racing
in the early 60's to head of public relations for Texas World Speedway,
and director of public relations and promotions for motorsports events in
Houston's Astrodome for fifteen years. As to his opinion of the state of the
automotive industry Gunn
says, "I see things improving and feel we automotive journalists can help.
American manufacturers are building their best vehicles in history, but the
public’s perception
has not caught up with the reality. We need to promote the positives. The
industry has faired better in Texas than most parts of the country because our
love affair with
cars and trucks is genetic and contagious."

As an award winning broadcaster and
journalist, Gunn is most proud of being named a Pioneer of Broadcasting by the
Texas Association of Broadcasters and this November he is being inducted into
the Texas Radio Hall of Fame.

Wooden Horse News (July 12) reported, Car and Driver and Road & Track have now
been re-organized by owner Hachette Filipacchi under the umbrella Jumpstart
Automotive Group, named for the vertical online ad network that Hachette bought
in 2007 for $84 million. Buried in the article about this reorganization in Mediaweek.com is some interesting news about these two magazines. First, they
will upgrade their paper stock. Second, the automotive news, which has played
such a big part for both magazines, will be mostly moved online whereas print
will feature more content-rich material. In addition, both magazines will
relaunch their websites this summer. Although this reorganization follows the
lead of Hachette's other magazines, pundits speculate whether the publisher is
preparing to sell them.”

Onine Media Daily reports, “new research from
social media platform Wetpaint and digital consulting firm Altimeter Group found
that companies with the highest levels of social media activity on average
increased revenues by 18% in the last 12 months, while the least active saw
sales drop 6% over that period.” Starbucks and Dell were winners. No word on car
companies but that, reportedly, is available at
www.engagementdb.com.

Photo By: Keith Syvinski

In case you missed it, News Corp. Chairman, Rupert Murdoch says the vast
communications conglomerate will charge for all its news web sites. Faced with a
$600 million quarterly loss. Murdoch was quoted by David Wilkerson in MarketWatch as saying in a conference call with analysts and reporters,
"Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content
is simply cannibalizing its ability to produce good reporting.” . . . And, it
may become the province of the privileged if trends across the pond presage the
future of journalism here. Media Digest, compiled by the Immediate Network,
reports in its August issue that a survey shows journalism there is no longer “a
working class trade,” with more and more “hacks” (their word)
coming from well-off families. But that may be irrelevant as in the same issue
Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired, author of “The Long
Tail” and just out, "Free: The Future of A Radical Price", is quoted
as telling the German weekly Spiegel, “ I don’t use the word media, I
don’t use the word news. I don’t think those words mean anything anymore. They
defined publishing in the 20th Century. Today they’re a barrier standing in our
way, like a horseless carriage.”

AOL.Com, fortunately, is going all out to become ”an online media powerhouse”,
according to Michael Arrington writing for TechCrunch.com. He reports the
company now has 1500 people writing content,
1,000 full time, the others
freelance and it plans to have 2 to 3 times more writing across its multiple
sub-brands in a year -most of them coming from print media. Meanwhile, the AP
has initiated a new tag and tracking system to protect the content it
distributes and the scribblers who provide it. Some see this as a preemptive
move versus Google’s predicted expansion from a platform to a content provider
as well. Google-owned You Tube, ”self proclaimed ‘biggest news platform in the
world,” writes Theresa Cramer in InformationTech.com's Newsbreaks, is actively
seeking partners for its “News Near You” section. It provides video feeds
from professional provider partners within 100 miles of section visitors’
computers.
This avoids the problems attending use of amateur content and advertising.

At least one well-established automotive journalist has experienced what
he believes are shrinking press fleets. AWCom knows of no comparative
figures to access the situation – although shrinking budgets likely
affect this activity – along with a believed shrinking regard for
journalists, as PR becomes increasingly a subservient marketing function.

For
auto journalists seeking fame and fortune by writing a book, TechNewsWorld describes a new software application,
Scrivener that
reportedly speeds up the writing processes, if not content creation. The
developer, would-be novelist Ken Blount, told McNewsWorld "I had
chapters and research scattered in documents everywhere, not really
organized and if I wanted an overview of my work, I'd have to go back to
the documents and summarize what I'd done." When he couldn’t find a
program to keep it altogether, he created Scrivener and sells it through
a company he formed, Literature and Latte. John Mello, Jr. reports
Scrivener has drawn raves with one established writer saying, "The great
strength of Scrivener is that it sees a book as a mosaic of scenes and
chapters that you can move around and juggle in very fine detail, or
pull back and see the bigger picture of the chapters or the whole book."

A new book that did it without Scrivener is Automotive Custom
Interiors by Sue Elliott. She has painstakingly provided an
exhaustive, inspirational and informative mosaic of what can be done to
make over a car’s interior to show class quality and how to do it. She’s organized
and captioned 388 photos to illustrate nine chapters, each devoted to a
specific aspect of custom interiors. Another 100 or so provide glimpses
of what can be done with door cranks and handles, pedals, dome lights
and other detailing touches that complete the job. A 10th chapter tells
how to take an inspiration from idea to reality. To order, go to
www.motorbooks.com . . . And, for an inside look at how
Joe Rosen built,
campaigned and marketed the Baldwin Motion Camero and other supercars of
the 60s, Marty Schorr provides it in MOTION Performance: Tales of a
Muscle Car Builder. With a forward by Joe Oldham, it is 176 pages
hardbound and has 262 photos. Media reviewers can contact Nicole Schiele
at nschiele@motorbooks.com.

For those who can’t get enough, the
Porsche Book issued to celebrate the company’s 60th anniversary should
do it. Hardcover, it comes in three volumes with slipcase and contains a
total of 1500 pages, 2,012 photos and 99 illustrations. It is priced
under $300 - $299.95 to be exact. Also celebrating the brand is Porsche
917 X 17 by Jeffery Zwart, forward by Derek Bell. It, too, is hardcover
and a more modest 264 pages at $149. 95 It has 190 photographs including
studio studies of the car and some of the racecar's most famous drivers.
Both books are available from Bull Publishing,
sales@bullpublishing.com.
. . . For those trying to figure out what is happening in the world of
mass communications, Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield has written
The Chaos Scenario, a book elaborating on his much-praised and insightful
column of a two years go. It is available through Stielstra Publishing.

For those who respond to the word “free” Landspeed Louise Noeth
has posted her shots of the recent record setting steam car runs at
Edwards Air Force base. But you will have to contract for reproduction
rights at Louise Ann Noeth at 805.312.0893 or
louise@landspeedproductions.biz.
. . . Also in the free to see category is
Craig Pike’s posting of photos
from Bonneville Speedweeks at myridesisme.com. Organized by
car types, they also include salt covered non-racers at the nightly Nugget Casino car show and people shots capturing some of the fun and
camaraderie at the event. Direct links to the various categories
include:
Roadster Race cars;
Doorslammers and Modifieds;
Streamliners and Lakesters.

Valuable film from other times and venues are in danger of being lost
according to National Automotive History Collection trustee, Larry
Gustin. Because much historical commercial footage is wrapped in money
concerns, Gustin urges folks with amateur footage
to make it available before it is inadvertently discarded or
deteriorates – frustrations the former Buick PR man experienced in trying
to enrich the
historical archives of the GM Division named for David Dunbar Buick (who
knew?). Contact the NAHC or Gustin through:
bthompso@detroitpubliclibrary.org

Wooden Horse News (Aug. 2) describes what sounds like a helpful
new answer engine that aggregates information from multiple sources to
provide answers rather than a list of references: at
http://www26.wolframalpha.com . . . Ever optimistic Doug Stokes is
booking press interviews now for his boss,
Gale Banks, at the
SEMA Show
in November and the PRI show in December. . . . After five years
TrueDelta.com has 42,126 members reporting actual experience on 51,647 cars.
Publisher Michael Karesh says, “We have a Car Reliability Survey that is
14 months ahead of the "leader." The Gas Mileage and WNTC Surveys
provide information available nowhere else, he says.

Robert Farago has resigned from The Truth About Cars blog he founded and
ferociously energized for 10 years. No explanation or hint of future
plans. Edward
Niedermeyer, succeeds him as editor of the feisty web site.

Welcome news for auto writers is that Amos Automotive is increasing the
frequency of its enthusiast publications and is adding a new print and
digital title, Chevy Enthusiast. Richard Truesdale, who edits his own
web site, www.automotivetraveler.com, is the editor and
welcomes feature pitches for the publication, For more details on the
changes at Amos, plans for the new magazine and how best to pitch
Truesdale,
check the full news release on the Autowriters.com Blog

Ruth Fergusoneditor@northdallasgazette
publishes a car review per week. . . . Reporter William Johnson,
wjohnson@dailyworld.com , is the automotive contact for the
Opelousas
(LA) Daily World. .
. . Kevin Kelly is Senior Editor of Automotive Design and
Production and a new title the company acquired this year, Time
Compression, which focuses on technology designed to speed product
development, whether it be CAD/CAM or PLM systems, as well as rapid
prototyping and is a member of Consumer Digests’ Best Buys
Jury. . . . Veteran automotive PR operative Dan Passe writes that the
doors of Passe Consulting Incorporated (PCI) are now open in Charlotte,
NC with "a network of professionals that allows the company to be a
‘one-stop shop' for all of a client's needs or to provide targeted
support in a given area." dan@passeconsulting.com

The My Favorite Car column at the Modesto Bee is no longer staff
written. Now, readers are invited to submit write ups and photos
conforming to a specific format . . .Sunset Custom Media currently does
not have an auto related publication but is in talks with several
companies . . . AutoWeek Radio has been launched on Radio America with
Thomas Berg as the host. . . . Editor Vince Bodiford reports that
The
Weekend Drive has been relocated
from Colorado to Scottsdale, Ariz. And that it has been greatly
overhauled in the process with new content, style features and color
palette, upgraded consumer offerings, videos, a new blog, a Twitter page
feed and most importantly a much larger
team of regional editors and contributors that are listed at
http://www.theweekenddrive.com/about.php.
Additionally, The Weekend Drive is contributing and sharing content with
Speed TV.com and will produce video broadcast packages from various show
venues for SpeedTV.

Tress Eveleth is now editor-in-chief of Dupont Publishing . . .
Jonathan
Stein has returned to Detroit from Europe to take on the duel role of
editor of Automotive News and of Automotive News Europe. . . .
Mark
Fulmer of the Auto Channel recently changed his email to
mark.fulmer@comcast.net
. . . Marti Longworth has departed Diesel World Magazine and executive
editor Chris Neprasch is the press contact:
cneprasch@beckett.com

Source Interlink
has shortened its email domain name to sorc.com. . . . Joe Arellano is
The Car Blog’s lead editor at:
jarellano@automotive.com . . . . The
correct email address for The Diesel Show in Birmingham, AL. Is
Johnny@thedieselshow.tv
. . . Steve Purdy, Detroit Editor for The Auto Channel, has changed his
email address to: stevepurdy3@gmail.com . . . Long time Detroit area
auto journalist and PR operative, Marge Sorge, now runs The Detroit
Regional News Hub with the avowed purpose of leading visiting foreign as
well as local journalists to positive stories in and about the Motor
City. Sponsored by local and regional civic organizations, the web site
is: www.thedetroithub.com . . .
Bernie Woodall joins the automotive
team in Reuters’ Detroit bureau. . . . ATVTelevision has switched to
the full-feed broadcast service, Untamed Sports TV
that is available to 18 million households via Direct TV and 18 million
via digital broadcast and cable providers, not necessarily unduplicated.

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AWARDS

Landspeed Louise Noeth has been named “2009 Goodguys
Woman of The Year".

Gertrude Crain, who helped grow Crain Communications to one of the
largest
privately owned business publishers (Automotive News among them) was
posthumously awarded the Mildred Marcum Pioneer Award by the Women In
The Winner’s Circle Foundation. Lynn St. James, president of the
Foundation, made the presentation. Milded Marcum and her husband, John,
founded ARCA.

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motoring press
organizations

The 15 regional automotive press associations provide
information and background not easily found elsewhere.
If
they are too distant to attend their meetings, belonging usually
gives you access to transcripts or reports of these events and
other benefits.

My "First Tuesday Car Lunch Bunch" at the Waikiki Yacht Club
gets more and more popular as 40-50 gearheads meet to talk cars
each month with newest and oldest car models at the Curb. Last
Tuesday 1966 Mustang.2010 Shelby and video clips of 1970's Trans
Am with Parnelli and George Follmer. Then we hooked up a phone
call to George in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho for a Q&A. Fellow scribe
Gary Witzenberg spoke several months ago, as did Barry Meguiar.
Open invitation to all autowriters.com readers to be our guest
when visiting Honolulu. Next month Porsche is the honored
marquee.

First boat across the finish line to win the 104th running of
the Trans Pac Long Beach to Honolulu 2152 mi ocean yacht race
was ALFA ROMEO 100 ft, monohull and crew of 16. from New
Zealand. Owner is the Alfa distributor for N. Zealand and when
asked what it takes to win replied "Money" The race boat was met
at Diamond Head by eight members of the Hawaii Alfa Romeo Club.
More summer reading
LA CARRERA PANAMERICANA by Johnny Tipler the most complete,
definitive history of the week-long, 2000 mi event from
1954-2007. ALL the storied names/ pilotos. Fangio, Shelby.
McGriff, Lang, JHerman, Rutman, Kling, Bettenhausen, Taruffi.
260 pages. A keeper. Motorbooks.com

Aloha
Bill (Maloney)

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